A review by shaguftap
The Royal Abduls by Ramiza Shamoun Koya

4.0

I was gifted a copy of this book by Net Galley and this is a book that hooked me from the first page. Once I started it was hard to stop. The book is an examination of career, love, family, parenting, Islamophobia and identity and how these things show up intimately in our relationships and imprint on our lives. The characters in this book do not hold religious identities themselves, but their names suggest otherwise, and so the author shows powerfully how xenophobia and Islamophobia impacts a person independent from their religious identity.

The most powerful of this story was the characters - and I completely fell in love with its protagonists, Amina a new postdoc in Washington DC, and her 11 year old nephew Omar. Above all else, this book feels like a love story about that love between an aunt and her nephew and I highly highly recommend!